3:54 p.m., Saturday the 21st
Well things went better for me yesterday, after that last post. I got caught up on everything, with time to spare for another bot game -- versus David, the 1400-point bot -- and I won again! This time I was playing as Black. It was a clean game too, in my opinion. The messiest moment for me was when I had to compromise my pawn structure. But that didn't turn out to be a problem. I actually wonder if David's style of playing is particularly weak when pitted against my own style. He did make things relatively easy for me in the opening. My next bot game will be (as White) against another 1400-point bot, named Ali. Ali will have a different playing style, and that may prove to be my undoing. Who knows.
If I can win against all of the 1400-point bots (including the Chess engine at 1400), I'll be advancing to the 1500-point bots, and Chess.com officially considers them to be the first of the advanced players. I don't feel advanced, but if I can make it that far, I'll be quite pleased. Advanced runs from 1500 to 2100 -- I certainly won't get past that category for awhile, if ever. After that is the Master level -- 2200 thru 2450. That's the highest level of "standard bots," after that there's the specialty/novelty categories that mostly imitate some real players. There is a Top Players category, 2500 thru 2800 ... and the Chess engine can be cranked as high as 3200. Heh; consider my mind blown.
Things were going so well ... until I went to sleep, and had a wicked nightmare. This isn't going to sound as frightening as it felt. There were many layers of symbolism. Somehow I was back in the church -- a theme that arises often in my dreams -- and I was assigned to give a talk. I had something really good prepared -- with a number of great scriptures. One of my best friends was conducting/presiding over the meeting. Then, after the meeting started, I realized I had forgotten to bring my scriptures. So I had to leave the meeting, hoping to get the scriptures and to still return in time. Well I couldn't seem to find my scriptures. And in fact, I lost my way. I got lost in a very large church building; I couldn't find my way out. The best I could do, was eventually pass into a different building, where the thing I had with me got scanned, and then I was led into a large room, where a number of blood relatives were seated at various tables.
It turned out, that I had just been committed to an insane asylum. The relative who told me this, went on to say, "I told you that you should have just given an impromptu talk, without the scriptures!" to which I disgustedly said, "Oh yeah, that would have been a great talk. And now here I am committed, and all I brought with me was this stupid coloring book." It was at that point that I woke up ... and let me tell you, I felt pretty awful. I decided to get up and do a pit stop, hoping it would clear my head. Then, after I went back to sleep, I had an extended series of dreams where I was drafted into the Army, and assigned to Afghanistan. Not upsetting enough to be called a nightmare, but a little unnerving. So here I am today, not as stressed-out as I was yesterday, but jonesing once again for some Jäger. BH and SB left a short time ago to go meet someone he is selling something to, but I don't think they'll be gone long enough for me to get away with the drinky-drink.